Editorial | Taking furloughs ... or maybe not

You can lead some Metro Council members to a furlough but you can't make them think.

That's apparent from the incoherent explanations they provided for not actually taking any furlough days after pledging to do so last year in a show of solidarity with city workers required to take five days off with no pay to save public money.

"I don't remember being asked to do it once I said I would," said Dan Johnson, one of nine Democrats who had issued news releases saying they would sacrifice pay in order to share the pain of city workers. "I didn't know how to do it, besides that."

The workers who got a pay cut didn't seem to have any trouble figuring it out. Nor did Mayor Greg Fischer, who returned five days' pay to city coffers to help balance the budget for the fiscal year that ended June 30.

Then there's this explanation from Democrat David Tandy, who also took no furlough days after pledging to do so. Mr. Tandy said he figured the city's budget got better.

"It was assumed that it wasn't needed," he told The Courier-Journal's Dan Klepal. Tandy said he will do it "if it's something that's needed to help balance the budget."

It was a non-partisan abdication. All nine Republicans on the council also pledged to take furlough days but two never followed through with actually forfeiting any of their $43,323-a-year council salaries.

Republican Jon Ackerson, one of them, gets credit for candor.

"I just dropped the ball," Mr. Ackerson said, pledging he will make sure it gets done.

In all, six council members who offered to take furlough days took none and five took fewer than the five days required of city employees.

Another six council members elected not to participate.

Seven members - Republicans and Democrats - took five, including Council president Jim King and former president Kelly Downard.

And two members, God bless them, took more than five days.

They are Democrats Rick Blackwell and David Yates, who each took seven days off with no pay. Mr. Yates' explanation was refreshingly clear in contrast to the stumbling efforts of other council members to explain themselves.

"I was trying to lead by example in hopes that other people would follow," he said.

Louisville, Kentucky • Southern Indiana

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Editorial | Taking furloughs ... or maybe not

You can lead some Metro Council members to a furlough but you can't make them think. That?s apparent from the incoherent explanations they provided for not actually taking any furlough days after